rhode island

Sales associate Matt Hart uses a pair of chopsticks to hold a bud of Lemon Skunk, the strain of highest potency available at the 3D Dispensary, on Friday, Dec. 19, 2014, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

It is no surprise that marijuana use has increased in Colorado since the state legalized the drug for recreational use. However, what is surprising is that new U.S. federal data shows that Rhode Island tops Colorado as pot capital of the country, reports Guardian Liberty Voice.

According to a new National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that nearly 16 percent of all residents of Rhode Island age 12 and over smoked pot in the past month during the period studied from 2012-2013. That is slightly below 1 out of 6 people.

By comparison, in Colorado, the rate is about 1 out of 8 Colorado residents older than 12 had used marijuana in the past month. That puts the state third in the usage data behind Rhode Island and the District of Columbia. While usage has increased in Colorado since the drug was legalized, it has increased in the other areas too, even though recreational use there is still a crime.

In the state of Washington, which more recently legalized marijuana use and limited possession, there has been an increase of about 20 percent in monthly pot use. In 2012-2013, approximately 12.3 percent of residents age 12 and older reported using pot.

Those states are well above the national norm. In the U.S., approximately 9.27 percent of those age 12 and over claim they use marijuana at least once a month. That is an increase of about 4 percent over the previous year.

More telling is the data for those between ages 18 through 25. In Colorado, D.C., Rhode Island and Vermont, more than 30 percent of residents between those ages used pot monthly.

So, curious which states appear to have the lowest monthly use of marijuana? The lowest usage is reported in Kansas, where only about 6 percent of the people over 12 light up once a month or more. Other states of the low end of the usage scale include South Dakota, West Virginia, North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Idaho and Utah ( with percentages of 6.17, 6.34, 6.5, 6.62, 6.79, 6.84, and 6.98, respectively. Those states tended to be among the lowest in usage for the 18 to 25 group, too.

The survey is among the first to quantify pot use in Colorado since late 2012, when voters approved legal pot use and possession for those over 21. But the survey did not analyze data from 2014, when recreational marijuana shops opened, which means it is not a good indication of the effect of commercial sales on marijuana use.

“I don’t think this tells us about the long-term impacts of legalization,” said University of California, Los Angeles, professor Mark Kleiman, who studies marijuana policy. The number of medical marijuana patients in Colorado rose over the same time period, so the results are not surprising, Kleiman said.

“The fraction of people who are monthly users who are in fact daily users has gone way, way up,” he said.

WARWICK, R.I. — Rhode Island’s third and final medical marijuana dispensary has opened in Warwick.

WJAR-TV reports that the Summit Medical Compassion Center opened on Wednesday.

Bill Berube was the center’s first patient and tells the station he used to use narcotics and pain killers to manage a medical issue, and he has been able to switch to medical marijuana, which has helped a lot.

Two other dispensaries opened in Rhode Island last year in Providence and Portsmouth. Three are allowed in Rhode Island. They all had to be approved by the Department of Health.

Under state law, medical marijuana patients must get approval by their doctors and register with the state. WJAR reports there are around 9,300 patients registered in Rhode Island.

The fate of marijuana legalization in two states and the nation’s capital won’t be decided until November, but advocates are proceeding with their 2016 campaigns in a handful of other states.

The Marijuana Policy Project, the advocacy group that played a vital role in helping to pass legalization in Colorado, has formally announced committees to push legalization in 2016 in Arizona, Massachusetts and Nevada, and has filed paperwork with the California secretary of state to form a campaign committee there.

The new committee, the Marijuana Policy Project of California, will begin raising funds immediately to get a measure on the November 2016 ballot, the group said.

“A diverse coalition of activists, organizations, businesses and community leaders will be joining together in coming months to draft the most effective and viable proposal possible,” Marijuana Policy Project Executive Director Rob Kampia said in a statement. “Public opinion has been evolving nationwide when it comes to marijuana policy, and Californians have always been ahead of the curve.”

In 1996, the state became the first in the nation to legalize medical marijuana. The Field Poll, which specializes in public opinion research in the state, found last December that 55 percent of California voters support the legalization of the drug, the first time a clear majority supported such a policy since it began asking about the issue in 1969.

The legalization movement has largely been focused in the West so far.

Colorado and Washington were the first to legalize the drug, with sales in both states having begun this year. Oregon and Alaska — as well as D.C. — will pose the question to voters this fall.

An early August Public Policy Polling survey found that 49 percent of Alaska voters oppose the measure while 44 percent support it.

Support in Oregon was pegged at 51 percent in a June poll by Survey USA.

If approved there and, subsequently, in California, the entire West Coast would be legalized.

But the Marijuana Policy Project has its sights on other regions, too.

In addition to the 2016 committees formed in Arizona this month and Massachusetts and Nevada earlier in the year, the project plans to focus on legalizing marijuana legislatively in Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont in the coming years.

The group plans to use the initiative process to achieve the same goal in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada.

A signed petition is what put the proposed medical marijuana amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot in Florida. The amendment would require a 60 percent positive vote to be ratified.